Hall of Fame for Great Americans 1930

About the members of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans for 1930 including Whitman, Maury, Monroe and others.

THE HALL OF FAME FOR GREAT AMERICANS

1930

There were 107 electors, and 64 votes were required for election. By this time there were criticisms for the failure to include Walt Whitman among the honored Americans. Whitman made it with a bare three-fifths total.

James A. M. Whistler, artist (74)

James Monroe, statesman (66)

Matthew F. Maury, scientist (66). Maury (1806-1873) was an oceanographer. During the Civil War he supported the Confederacy; he left the U.S. at the end of the conflict and did not return until 1869. After Lee, he was the second "Rebel" to be elected.

Walt Whitman, poet (64)

There are some interesting sidelights to the election of 1930. Both James Monroe and James A. M. Whistler were not candidates in 1925 but were elected in 1930. Horace Bushnell, Adoniram Judson, and scientist Benjamin Thompson had received votes in every election through 1930. At one time or another, each of them had received at least 36 votes. After 1930 none of them was ever given another vote. For the first time, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was a nominee and got 3 votes. Pres. James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881, got 2 votes and Pres. William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901, got 1.

Cyrus McCormick, inventor of "McCormick's reaper," came close to election, with 53 votes.